Pyramid Hill timeline
1830s – Historic Pioneer House and Stone Wall are constructed
1930s – Pines planted on the East Ridge by Conservation Corps
1987 – First 40 acre tract is purchased by Harry T. Wilks
1990 – Construction of Pyramid House begins
1992 – Pyramid House completed
1995 – 75 acre tract purchased across the road with access to the Great Miami River; Harry Wilks begins collecting ancient sculpture and visiting galleries to find sculptures to include in the park
1996 – Lodge built; Bandstand completed in amphitheatre; The park’s first commissioned sculpture “Ohio Star” by Joel Perlman
1998 – Pyramid Hill opens to the public on May 7
1999 – Summer Children’s Series begins with guidance of Judy Jarvis
2000 – Park receives 501(c)(3) nonprofit status
2001 – Restoration of Pioneer House
2002 – Acquisition and restoration of “Cincinnati Story” by George Sugarman
2003 – Harry Wilks wins Post-Corbett Lifetime Achievement Award; Inaugural Art Fair October 10-12
2005 – Visions of Sculpture photo competition begins
2006 – Butler County Master Gardeners construct the Walled Garden
2007 – Construction begins on the Ancient Sculpture Museum
2008 – Festival Pavilion opens
2009 – Ancient Sculpture Museum opens May 28
2010 – Ancient Sculpture Museum wins Hamilton 2010 Vision Award
2012 – Pyramid Hill 15th Anniversary celebration, April 13
HAMILTON — The creation of Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park began as something of a selfish gesture, according to founder Harry T. Wilks.
“I wanted to save the land,” he said.
In 1987, Wilks purchased 40 acres of land off Hamilton-Cleves Road, just south of Hamilton city limits, to build a home without a thought as to how things would turn out — including the unique nature of the house itself.
“I cleared a hilltop site of brush and fallen timber and noticed how the slope on the east side of the hill was almost the same as on the west,” he said. “So I got the idea to build through the hill and have a nice patio on either side.”
Although he’s an attorney by trade, not an architect, he wanted to design the house himself, and as he was making sketches, the idea of a pyramid came to him that would make the house open to the woods that surrounded it. Not far from the front door, he created a tee for the first hole of a private golf course he planned to build. The fairway went down the hill and the hole was next to a tennis court.
“When I got the house built, I invited a bunch of guys to come up for a drink and play tennis,” he said. “A lot of them were builders themselves and they were so impressed with the place, they started offering $100,000 and $125,000 an acre so they could build their own homes there.”
So he started buying up adjacent property, eventually amassing 265 acres on both sides of what is now called Pyramid Hill Boulevard, to keep the pristine land from being taken over by developers and subdivisions.
He said he was inspired to start purchasing sculpture after noticing that some large, monumental works being placed in front of skyscrapers were so big that it was impossible to take them in unless you got several blocks away, and then the view was cluttered by the cityscape.
“I thought that would be the kind of art that could go into a park,” he said.
So he started buying sculpture, then decided it would be a waste to keep them all to himself, so he started the process to create a public foundation to run a sculpture park that could be maintained long after his time on earth.
“It’s a public park, but we don’t get any money from the government,” he said. In addition to his own money, the park is supported by the Hamilton Community Foundation, memberships and income from fundraisers and special events such as the annual Pyramid Hill Arts Fair and Holiday Lights on the Hill.
The park now includes 60 outdoor sculptures and around 90 works of ancient art in the Museum of Antiquities, which opened in 2009.
Future plans for the park include the creation of the Pyramid Hill Creative Arts Center, a collection of small, pod-like cabins surrounding a main lodge where artists, musicians and writers can gather for retreats and workshops and have both a private place to work and a place to gather for meals or group discussions.
Wilks said he wants the collection to encompass the entire history of art.
“We have the ancient sculpture in the museum and modern sculpture from World War II on in the park,” Wilks said. “So our long-term goal is to fill in the middle with art between 500 AD and World War II.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
About the Author